Lightweight Alternatives to Adobe Reader [Lite PDF Viewer]

Screenshot of PDF-XChange Viewer in action

The portable document format, known as a PDF to most, is a terrific way to share documents online without worrying about whether or not your recipient has the appropriate operating system,  software or  software version, basically to ensure that it arrives the way you sent it, among other things. Adobe Reader has become the defacto standard program to view PDF files and it usually does just fine, but I’ve never been known to leave anything well enough alone. Reader was always just too slow for any PDF viewing. I rejoiced when Google introduced the feature on their search engine to view PDF results as a HTML render; the same goes for Gmail.

Looking for a little more excitement (and an new option for a recently reformatted laptop of mine), I looked around for lightweight viewers. I found Foxit PDF Reader which is quick to load, and allows annotations, highlighting, and, most importantly, typing on the PDF for saving or printing. Another alternative is the PDF-XChange Viewer (screenshot shown) which loads a little more slowly (though, still years faster than Reader) but has a plethora of tools including drawing, copying, text boxes, typewriter mode, and even a smaller portable version.

On a similar note: Need to create a PDF, or convert a file for a friend lacking the software? Try PrimoPDF. I use it most often to save online confirmations or receipts as PDFs instead of physically printing them. I’ve also used it for posting resumes, or PowerPoint files as PDFs with no worry that the end-user didn’t have the latest version of Office.

Google Blog Search RSS [Narcissism Delivered to YOU!]

I’ve been meaning to post about this since the post listing the uses of my Creative Commons -licensed photos across the web. Google Blog Search allows you to perform normal search engine functions, but limits the search results to the ever-growing blogosphere.

The best part was when the added support for feeds of any search (Old news now, I know).

Originally, I found post that had used my photos by checking stats on Flickr.com and this blog for referrers. After that, I Googled (using both traditional web and blog searches) the pseudonym I had been using on Flickr.

But now, thanks to Google Blog Search RSS feeds, I simply add feeds to my reader that include my full name and pseudonym and I’m alerted whenever someone in the blogosphere uses a photo (with credit, of course) or refers to me (for good or bad!). Using the feeds, I’ve been able to keep my previous listing up-to-date as most new results are fed to my reader within hours of the new post.

On a similar note, I find it funny that I also get results whenever I post on this blog since my author name is attached to the feed. Also, since the blog automatically pings Google blog search whenever I post, the update usually occurs within an hour. Today, this resulted in Google Blog Search alerting me to the new post here on 365D before the feed that comes directly from 365D! In my blog’s defense, I run feeds through Feedburner, and those of you who subscribe get your feed from Feedburner, so, there’s a little delay.

Go blog search yourself today! Who knows what you might find!